Reflection #6

 Throughout my childhood, I would come up with crazy scenarios that I would act out with my friends. We made our own characters and played out the story in the backyard. Most of the time it was about mystical characters who were on a hunt for some kind of treasure. Although I do not remember any of the names of my characters, nor the story line, I distinctly remember running through the backyard with our fake swords and shields pretending to slay dragons and other mystical characters. Although playing pretend was the activity I was quite fond of as a child, there is one specific memory with this particular group of friends I will not ever forget. One day it was raining outside, so we could not play our normal game outside. We decided on playing hide and go seek. I was not the seeker at this point in time so I knew I had to have a good hiding spot. I chose to hide underneath the kitchen sink. There were cleaning products and other random objects that were stored under the sink. I took the time to take out every single object, climb in the counter, and replace each object as it was found. I was small enough that my head would fit in between the sink pipe and the back of the cabinet. I was in place so I waited quietly. I could hear the footsteps of the other kids walking in and out of the kitchen as they looked for me. The seeker had even opened the cabinet and did not see me. I was thrilled. One hour had passed and no one had found me yet. Finally the seeker had given up. All were standing in the kitchen at this point so when I climbed out from under the sink everyone was stunned. I used my creativity to effectively hide from all the others who were playing the game.

In my adult life, I use creativity quite often to solve some of my worst problems. The most recent I can think of has to do with the musical Hairspray that we just put on. Nathan Forrestor was our hot dog man. He had a hotdog stand that was supposed to be held up by a strap around his neck. This strap was literally two pieces of rope tied together. He approached me and kindly asked if I could alter this strap so that the cart is a little more comfortable. At this point, we were only a week away form the show, and I had literally twenty other things to do in that week. I looked at him and said “Yep, no problem.” Here I'm really thinking “Great....one more thing.” I decided the best way to do this is grab a strap that usually goes on a messenger bag, or lap top case, and attach it to this contraption. Well doing that was not easy enough. Not the cart hung in front of his chest instead of down by his belly button. I decided to take some tie line, and make an extension on the strap and the duct tape it so that the supports hold in place. Sure this was probably not the most well thought out plan, but it was me thinking on the fly. For the three minutes Nathan was on stage in this costume, it looked good, and it made his neck more comfortable.

In the first ever Superman comic, Clark Kent goes to try and get a job at The Daily Star. He is denied the job by the editor. Later that day, Clark calls the editor to inform him that a mob is attacking the county jail. The editor tells Kent to cover the story. Clark appears as Superman and helps the situation. This allows him to get the full story, as well as, help the people who are currently in the bad situation. After Superman helps out, he calls the editor with the information and receives a position at The Daily Star. Superman is very smart to think up this strategy. He had to use a different tactic in order to get this job. Just simply applying did not work out, so Superman called on his powers in order to get an every day career.